A Brand from the Burning

maybe Marmite Motors!

A "brand from the burning" was a phrase used by John Wesley to describe his miraculous (and Divinely inspired, as he profoundly believed) childhood escape from a disastrous fire at the Wesley family home in Epworth.

[Isle Coaches Bus 291 from Doncaster to Owston Ferry]

 

Historically, a red-hot "brand" was used to burn a farmer's initials into the skin of cattle.  Modern product brands are almost always well-known, usually memorable and often very long lasting.  The Coca Cola brand has its origins in 1886, and the logo was certainly in use, more-or-less in its present form, in 1888.

Branded bus services probably began with Green Line in London; once a substantial network of long distance limited stop cross-London routes linking the main towns in the home counties.

Green Line started in 1930 and the brand (now owned by Arriva, sorry, Deutsche Bundesbahn) still applies today although the network is much smaller.

Some may even remember British Coachways [BC], an attempt by independent operators to match the growing success of National Express, a newly-created brand within the state-owned National Bus Company.  

BC fizzled out remarkably quickly.   The huge Midland Red Company introduced a whole range of local brands in the 70s, of which Reddibus (for Redditch) was probably the most distinctive.

The problem with bus brands is that it can be hard to preserve their identity.  And if that identity is compromised, what use is the brand? In older bolder bread van days these three minibuses were photographed by fbb ON THE SAME DAY all operating the service 6 from Ryde to Tesco. Only the blue livery was correct!

Today in Plymouth, First runs the "Tavy>Linx" with buses in a non-standard purple livery tagged "up to every 15 minutes". (Photo courtesy of Plymothian Transit blog.) 

That may be so in Plymouth itself but on arrival at Tavistock half the journeys arrive at the same time as (or even a few minutes later than) the following departure.  Between Yelverton and Tavistock there are two buses running together every half hour.  Down to every 30 mins! 

Why?

This is because Plymouth City Bus withdrew its service 7 to Woolwell (School Drive) and First replaced it with double runs off the main road for half of their Tavistock buses.  Similar problems existed in 1996 when the service was only every 20 minutes ...

... and the 30 mins past from Plymouth arrived at the same time as the previous 10 mins past (etc.).

It makes "up to every 15 minutes" about as meaningful as adverts for broadband speed.   So fbb has a question.  Whilst, undoubtedly, passenger numbers can grow with a quality service, an attractive fares "package" and improved frequencies, is there any statistical evidence that weird and wacky brands have any measurable effect?

Do passengers respond by rushing on board to get their five healthy trips a day from fruity companies with names like Flying Banana, Big Lemon, Strawberry and Kumfy Kumquat?*   Would they travel just as much if the buses were labelled "Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Joint Transport and Electricity Board"** or something really, really silly like that?

*One of these is an fbb invention - click to find out which!

**SHMD (illustrated above) became part of SELNEC, ...

... the South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire Passenger Transport Executive, in 1969.   Now that WAS a distinctive brand. Oddly, the new name was just as unwieldy as the full version of SHMD; the later renaming to Greater Manchester PTE was a much better!

Next blog : due on Friday April 8th  

How to Use the Internet

a beginners guide?

It was Elsie Miggins who started it.   She said that Florrie at No 24 had told her that Mrs Whats-er-name; you know, the one with the deaf cat next to the pub, had heard that the 50 bus was changing at the beginning of May.   Her husband, Jack, was going to look it up on  his new computer; because, according to Jack, "you can find anything on line, these days." 

 the one with the deaf cat

How might Jack research the changing No 50?   Maybe the best place is the usually excellent Derbyshire website,

 

as No 50 runs from Chesterfield to Sheffield via Eckington?   [once service 62, joint between Chesterfield Corporation, East Midland and Sheffield Transport]

 

Sadly, and unknown to Jack, Derbyshire is having problems because the contractor who typesets its timetables has gone bust, so ...

... he only knows that it will change and thus the world now knows that Mrs Whats-er-name was right.  It's a start.   It only takes FIVE clicks to get to this information, by the way, assuming you click correctly each time.   So now the obvious place to look is Stagecoach's website,

which "one-clicks" to the timetables pages.  Perhaps that might help?   Only FOUR further clicks get you to a drop-down menu for Chesterfield.   Where's service 50?   After 49?   In numerical order?   No way! 

 

It comes AFTER service 98, in a little block with 25 and 99.   Sadly, having navigated Brian Souter's strange concept of numerology, the only offer is "current timetable".

As an aside, Jack might like to look at a route map of the service.  So another click or two on "route map, view" and, hey presto ...

... no map and back to the welcome screen!   Another huge success for technology.   Jack should be pleased that he has a new computer because the Stagecoach web site refuses to work unless you have the very latest Microslop Windslow upgrade.

fbb guesses that Jack would now give up, wondering why he bothered to buy the ****** computer in the first place.  [readers fill in their own choice of brand name - or other descriptive epithet!] But a resolute IT enthusiast MIGHT just try the other end of the route. Yipee, it's Travel South Yorkshire and its new swirly web site!

Failure again.   Three clicks later, that's the old timetable.    So where next?   News and Updates?

Maybe there is some hope here.   In the "bus" panel it shows "Sheffield (1)"; but that's roadworks at Balby so Jack would have followed the wrong trail there.   What about "Future Changes"?

Don't bother with "new Services" because that only shows "71" which  isn't a new service, just a new number for bits of the former service 70.   Confused?   Keep going and try "future service changes".

And, complete with aching clicking finger, we actually have a list of what MIGHT be happening. 

50A is new.  Actually it isn't, but read on. 

50 is changing, and

99 is changing.   Alas, clicking on these headings produces a nul response.   The only timetables currently available are for those services shown in bold text; but the site fails to explain that.   And the 50A, 50 and 99 aren't in bold.

So, equipped with the unimaginable power of the internet, and an all-singing, all-dancing new computer, Jack is well and truly stuffed.   He can't tell his wife, Mrs Whats-er-name, who can't tell Florrie who fails to inform Elsie Miggins when the No 50 might come - in early May.

And don't even CONSIDER traveline; that offers nothing after 29th April!

Jack might even ring the usually well-informed fbb - but even the corpulent one cannot comply with Jack's request!  fbb DOES know, however, that from 8th May, service 99 is renumbered 50A and the times, they are a-changing.  AND the 50A is NOT a "new service", TSY, it's the 99 renumbered!  To begin to unravel all this, fbb did not use his crystal ball or visit Gypsy Rose Lee, he managed to trawl the depths of "service updates" c/o stagecoachbus.com:-

So fbb knows a bit more than Elsie Miggins.   But, as yet, the actual timetables are a closely guarded state secret.   You might, perhaps, think that nasty huge Stagecoach is keeping the timetable hidden because of "the cuts", fearing pitchforks at dawn in Eckington.   Not at all.   The service is being INCREASED between Sheffield and Eckington from hourly to half-hourly.   And details were formally registered, electronically, with the Traffic Commissioners in early March.

So a month later, with the astounding benefits of  21st century technology, we still know nothing, much!

Does the government; do the bus companies; do the web designers; do all these clever folk REALLY think this is the best way to publicise bus service changes? 

P.S.  Nothing to do with service 50, but a good Travel South Yorkshire "bludner".  This extract is from the Supertram Link new timetable from 8th May:-

1822 then about every 10 minutes to 1831?   Yep!  That's about right.  You couldn't make it up. 

 EXTRA bonus blog : on Thursday April 7th

A Peerless Pier (at a Price!)

and the fourth longest in GB, too.

For the record:- 1st, Southend: 2nd, Southport: 3rd, Walton-on-the-Naze.

The first Ryde Pier was opened in 1814 as a promenade for pedestrians and a dock for shipping.   Prior to that, those crossing the Solent had to change to "tow boats" which were dragged on to the beach.   The 1814 pier was joined by a parallel horse tramway pier in 1864 which carried passengers from pier head to the newly-opened railway terminus located at St John's Road on the southern fringes of Ryde's built-up area..

 

To get there, the tramway passed through the ground floor of a house on "The Strand"; the railway really did "come through the middle of the house"!**

In 1880 the third of Ryde's adjacent piers was built to carry the "proper" railway to connect with the ferries. St John's Road (the road not the station) had to be raised to bridge the extended line.   This meant that the property on the corner of Monkton Street had to make new entrances at first floor level as the original doors and windows were buried.  The property does not look its best at the moment!

The tramway pier remained as a shuttle from Pier Head to the Esplanade until 1969.   This picture shows the tram in its final form:-

But recently a crisis developed.   The builders who were extending the car parking area at the Pier Head reported a "problem" with the main pier, now mainly used by cars delivering and collecting their precious human cargo for interchange with the catamarans.   The "problem" was that nothing much was holding it up!  An immediate closure applied from 4th August 2010.  More or less everything apart from the supporting poles has been replaced at vast expense and the newly refurbished deck opened on March 14th 2011.

But to pay for the work, Wightlink have re-introduced a pier toll for vehicles; now £1. Fair enough, perhaps, but a bit painful as cars have been able to pick up and drop off next to the ferries free of charge for a number of years.   But the jolly chaps at Wightlink announced a mitigation of the misery.

Pier Head parking charges would be reduced to compensate.  Hooray!   How nice of such a kind ferry company, renowned for its reasonable pricing policy all-round.    (Some readers might detect just an modicum of cynicism - surely not?)

So these WERE the parking charges with NO pier toll ...

 

... and these are the new charges, reduced to compensate for the ADDITIONAL £1 pier toll levied for all vehicles.

How's your maths?

Old price £2.60 reduced to £2.00 to "compensate" for a pier toll of £1.  £2 plus £1 = £3, actually an increase of 40p.

Old price £5.20 reduced to £5.00  to "compensate" for a pier toll of £1.   £5 plus £1 = £6, actually an increase of 80p

You get the picture!   Thanks a bunch Wightlink.   How to "spin" a new pricing structure as "no change" when it is, on average, a 15% increase; cynically assuming your customers are "mathematically challenged", i.e."thick". We are NOT.  Are you surprised that the once very busy (often full Monday to Friday daytimes) pier head car park now has plenty of empty places all day long?

Power to the People!! 

** Song recorded by American baritone Vaughn Munroe in 1956

Acknowledgement : fbb thanks Alan for information and photos of Ryde Pier prices.

P.S. This sign, slightly mangled by Google Street View, dates from the days when St John's Road Station was the terminus of the Island line. It directs those just arrived from the train to the lavish sea front facilities.  It is at the top of Monkton Street on the fence of the currently-closed "Railway" pub,  opposite the building that was partially buried (above) and about a mile from the sea.   It reads "To Sea Front, Pavilion, Canoe Lake and Gardens"

 

Next blog : due Wednesday April 6th 

Today's Breaking News

An fbb blog exclusive!

The onslaught of our continental cousins' contribution to UK public transport appears unstoppable.  French, German and Dutch operators have succeeded in the invasion where a little man with a loud voice and a silly moustache failed in the past.   So here follows a lovely load of logos.

Deutsche Bundesbahn (German State Railways) are the owners of Arriva, part owners of Chiltern Rail and carry a significant percentage of UK rail freight.  As a chum reported recently, "I cannot believe that German Railways now provide my daily bus between Leicester and Groby!"

Keolis, which is the French Railways (SNCF - Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français) in disguise ...

...is involved with GoAhead's rail franchses and, in connection with First, is a partner in the Trans-Pennine service.  Then there is Abellio ...

... a trendy branding for the overseas businesses of Nederlandse Spoorwegen, the Dutch railway operator. It is now a partner in Merseyrail and Northern Trains, as well as operating buses in London!

Transdev bought Blazefield Holdings (Harrogate, Yorkshire Coastliner etc.), London Sovereign, Yellow Buses and London United (the latter two now with RATP) and holds minority interest in others. Yet Transdev is, in effect, a branch of the French Government ...

 ... via its "Caisse des Dépôts" office.  The department was originally set up in 1816 to help France recover from the economic disaster that followed the Napoleonic Wars.  It appears to be a mixture of "public-private partnership", "kick-start" investment and plain profit-seeking business.

 

RATP, Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (the Paris Transport Authority), has joined the ownership fray as part of "un grand transaction français".   RATP now owns London United, Yellow Buses (Bournemouth) and the Bath Bus Company.  And, finally, (for now at least) there is Veolia ... 

 

...its buses now globallly merged with Transdev but historically part of a huge international "public services" provider, also French.   After a period of intensive expansion in bus operation in UK, Veolia is on the back foot at the moment; having withdrawn from York and Nottingham and suffering from the wrath of the Traffic Commissioner in Wales.   It is significant that Veolia Great Britain is NOT part of the merger deal. Anyone want to buy an under-performing bus company?  Cela se vend à bas prix!*

But today, the British bus industry is expecting a dramatic announcement (due sometime before 12 noon) of the arrival on "this sceptred isle" of an Italian company.   Rumours are rife in cyberspace that a little known bus operator in Sicily is about to purchase a "well-known British bus and rail group".   The Italian company is called "Liprafolo" and may or may not be linked to Amat, the operator of local buses in Palermo.  The orange livery may be a clue?

As yet the chat rooms and user groups have been unable to reveal WHICH operator is being taken over, or, for that matter, where the billions of lire have come from to seal the deal.   Two clues may be of help.   One is a clip from an obscure Sicilian web site showing a model of a "bus inglese", tantalisingly on display in a Palermo toy shop window.

The other clue as to ownership and finance may be through a (possibly suspect) picture of the reclusive founder of the "family organisation" ...

... currently "unavailable for comment" at the company's head office.

One final snippet; "liprafolo" is, apparently, a cheeky Sicilian sprite ...

 

... that plays fiendish tricks on gullible folk on certain days of the year. Intriguing, eh?

Keep following this blog for news as it develops.

* Cela se vend à bas prix! = going cheap.

Next blog : due Monday April 4th